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John D. MacDonald Message Board 1/1/2012
Talk about the novels, new and used books that MacDonald has written!

Author MacDonald's Book Reviews

A Deadly Shade of Gold
“A Deadly Shade of Gold,” the 5th in the Travis McGee series is bawdy and brutal; a bloody chase novel taking McGee from Florida to Mexico to LA. MacDonald has a wondrous sense of place and you can feel the sensuous breezes and see the spectacular sunsets he creates for you. There are a few creaky spots: Nora, Travis's love interest, is so ‘50's lady-like, you expect her to be white gloved and hatted even in the shower; -- all characters are super sun...
A Tan and Sandy Silence
Travis McGee is having the time of his life--he's doing nothing but enjoying the life on board his “Busted Flush,” entertaining all his friends in his best care-freemanner! That is, until long-ago acquaintance Harry Broil comes abroad, gun in hand, threatening McGee within an inch of is life, accusing Travis of making off with his wife, Mary. Mary, herself, was an old friend, one whom Travis prizes dearly. Now he has to find her. As itwasn't l...
Barrier Island
Most of John D. MacDonald's novels are set in and around the state of Florida, but for Barrier Island, he moves around the coast to an area off the coastal waters of Mississippi. However, the theme of the story is similar to a lot of his other books: how man's greed is increasingly destroying the natural beauty of the world. In Barrier Island, a shady land developer named Loomis has concocted a scheme to bilk the government out of a lot of money by sell...
Dress Her in Indigo
The drug business is big time! And Travis McGee comes face to face with this evil in “Dress Her in Indigo.” Bix Bowie, a lovely young woman, has become hopelessly involved with her addiction and Travis takes on the responsibility of investigating. He tries to follow her trail--which means across the Mexican border and dealing with a world of social dropouts, rejects, and dope peddlers. On his way, he thinks he has the culprit, but Rocko, one ...

MacDonald booklist

Nightmare in Pink
This 2nd of the Travis McGee series is place in New York City where Travis fits about as well as Crocodile Dundee. John D. has not yet quite found his way with Travis yet, and it shows. Travis is enjoined to look out for a buddy's little sister in the big bad city. His little sister is a babe (surprise!) and has her share of troubles. Her fiancé has just been murdered, and she has found a stash of $10,000 that she fears he scammed. Nina is distres...
One Fearful Yellow Eye
The book is about Travis McGee's ex-girlfriend's husband being murdered, and robbed of 600,000 dollars. Travis is going on a search in Chicago to find out who killed Doctor Fort Geis....
One More Sunday
Roy Owen, a business executive, goes to Lakemore to find out what happened to his still-missing wife who disappeared while working on a story involving the Eternal Church of the Believer, a secretive mega-church with a huge campus, a mansion, dormitories and executive offices. Row Owen is a businessman whose wife decided to take up journalism. She was working on an unassigned story about the mega-curch when she disappeared into thin air. Roy wants to kno...
Pale Gray for Guilt
Gray is the titled color for this Travis McGee novel. Once again, John D. MacDonald's hero comes to the rescue. A longtime friend of McGee's is dead, murdered by some ruthless individuals who could care less that he had a wife and three children. McGee, sometimes known as that “amiable boat bum” (he only takes cases when he's out of money; the rest of the time he stays aboard his houseboat, “The Busted Flush,” enjoying life!) is determined to ...
The Dreadful Lemon Sky
Travis McGee is always knee deep in a mystery! This time, the mystery arrives in the middle of the night, while he is asleep on his houseboat, The Busted Flush. Carrie Milligan, an old friend, looks beat down, tired, and out of breath. She brings with her a large sum of money. She offers McGee $10,000 of it to keep the rest hidden; no questions asked. McGee doesn't deal well with a "no questions asked" policy, so he does a little investigative wor...
The Empty Copper Sea
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series is one of the best! Ever since the author introduced us to Travis back in 1964 in “The Deep Blue Good-by,” this “knight in tarnished armor” (according to Time magazine) has cultivated a massive following in the 21 novels in which he stars. (Each of the McGee books is characterized by a color in the title.) In “Empty Copper Sea,” Hub Lawless is reported drowned in a boating accident and his $2 million insuran...

John D. MacDonald list of books

The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
Private Investigator Travis McGee is back in one of several novels by John D. MacDonald, that contain a color in the title. The girl referred to is Maureen Pearson, a woman who keeps trying to commit suicide. He met the girl's mother years ago and upon her deathbed, she asks McGee to check in on her daughter now in her 30s and try to find out why she wants to kill herself. He visits Maureen and her husband and her young sister in a small coastal Flori...
The Good Old Stuff
In the introduction to this book of short stories, mostly set in the late 1950's to mid 1960's, John D. McDonald, creator of the much lauded Travis McGee series of mystery books, is quoted as saying he wanted a writer "to have a bit of magic in his prose style, a bit of unobtrusive poetry." He certainly achieves that ideal in this collection of thirteen mesmerizing stories which range in style from straight detective stories to tales of psychological sus...
The Green Ripper
This is a book of vengeance and revenge. Travis has finally found true love, and she is snatched from him by death. At first it appears to be a lethal illness, then horrifyingly, a random sophisticated killing. Trav is almost mad with a desire to find one man, one face to batter and then to execute. To face the fact that the murder appears to be an organizational hit with no single one-of-a-kind killer seems obscenely unfair. Travis follows some pap...
The Long Lavender Look
It's all about involvement! And Travis McGee can't stay un-involved. For instance, here he is, driving along in Miss Agnes (his customized vintage Rolls) on a dark highway, when, suddenly, from out of nowhere a barely clad young woman appears in his headlights. Trav brakes and fortunately misses her (but barely!) but Miss Agnes lands in the swamp. The girl disappears and he makes his way on foot into town. As he heads for town, a pickup truck zo...
The Quick Red Fox
Travis McGee is back in this exciting John D. MacDonald episode, “The Quick Red Fox.” This time, he is involved in helping a famed Hollywood star who is being blackmailed. He looks at the photographs the blackmailer has sent him and he can see why! Along his way, he must deal with alcoholism and lesbiansim, but in true McGee fashion, this “knight in tarnished armor” rides in for the rescue! An exciting read! ...
The Turquoise Lament
Travis McGee checks up on the daughter of an old friend, only to find out the girl is in danger from her own husband. Pidge Brindle came to Travis with a suspicion. Her new husband, Howie, may be trying to kill her. Travis is skeptical at first, since he remembers Howie as a happy-go-lucky deckhand who helped out a lot of the regulars when he used to hang around the marina where Travis lives, in Florida. But he goes to Hawaii to help out anyway, since...